Noise From Upstairs
by rockerchik777
Summary: She has a new home, a new life, and new people she has to share it with. It isn't as good as her former life, but there's one thign that keeps her there. She just can't keep away from the noise from upstairs. Wow, that summary sucked, but read it anyway!
1. Tragedy

-I know that I shouldn't be starting another story right now, I mean, there are like three that I haven't finished yet. But I really want to write this story, so I'm going to. I can't tell you if my other stories will ever be completed or not. But I'm going to really try to get this one finished. So I hope you enjoy it!-

"Clare Bear, could you get me a can of chicken broth from the pantry?"

Clare sighed, she hated the nickname that her mom gave her. She went to the pantry and looked. There was no chicken broth.

"There isn't any Mom."

"Well I'll go to the store real quick and get some."

"Seriously Mom, you don't have to, we can have soup tomorrow night."

"You want soup tonight though. I'll be back in a little bit."

Clare sighed again as her mother left. She looked a lot like her mom. At fifteen, she was tall, with dark brown hair and olive skin. Her eyes were a deep dark brown, a shade that could tell you more about her than she actually knew about herself. She didn't know who her dad was; she didn't think her mom knew either. It was just the two of them, Katie and Clare, sharing a tiny two bedroom apartment.

They didn't have a lot of money, but they weren't poor. Clare had nice clothes and Katie had a good job. Things were going great, in Clare's opinion. She sat down on the small sofa in the small living room and switched on the TV. Nothing was on, and she got bored quickly. She flipped through a magazine. Her mom wasn't back yet, and it had already been twenty minutes. Maybe she got caught in traffic, Clare thought.

Or maybe she saw a street market or something. Her mom was always stopping at little markets and buying things. But markets wouldn't be open this late. Clare was getting a little bit worried. She dialed her mom's cell phone. It rang four times, and the machine picked up. Clare hung up.

Her mom always answered her cell phone. _Always_. Clare was really worried now. The phone rang, and she picked it up quickly, hoping that it was her mom. It wasn't.

"Is Miss Clare Brown there?"

"This is she."

"Miss Brown, I'm very sorry to inform you that your mother, Miss Katie Brown, has been killed in a car accident."

Clare nearly stopped breathing. It wasn't real, none it was real. It couldn't be real! She pulled herself together, but she could feel tears coming on. She wanted to get off the phone, but the man on the other line was saying something.

"We need you to identify the body. I can send a police car to your house to pick you up. What is your address?"

She told him in a quiet voice her address and hung up. She slumped onto the sofa and started to cry. Clare sat and cried until she heard a knock at her door. She wiped her face and her nose with a tissue and sucked it up. A policeman at the door took her to the crash site, just a few miles from her apartment. There was a stretcher with a white sheet on it. The policeman pulled back the sheet, and Clare began to sob. She managed to choke out, "It's my mom."

A different policeman took her back to her house. She sat on the couch again and cried and cried. She didn't stop crying until she fell asleep.

The funeral was only three days later. Clare's aunt, the one that she hated most, had come to town and was taking care of her. Aunt Grace dropped Clare off in front of the cathedral and went to park. Feeling very alone, Clare entered the church. She took a seat near the back and started to look around her. She didn't recognize most of the people.

There was a large group of people sitting a few rows in front of her, all of them talking, a few of them crying. Some of them had kids with them. Some looked Clare's age, others looked way younger. She wondered how this group was connected to her mom. Maybe she would never know.

Her Aunt Grace sat down next to her then, and the funeral started. It was surprisingly short, but Clare didn't notice. She was quietly crying and wiping the tears away.

There was no after party, just a reading of the will for those whom it concerned. As she sat down at a long table, Clare recognized a few of the people who she had been looking at before. The lawyer came in, and he appeared flustered and ready to get this thing over with. He read the will quickly, but it said nothing about Clare until the very end.

Some jewelry was given to a Ms. Summer Hathaway. Mr. Dewey Finn received a bass guitar. Bass guitar? Clare thought. Why would her mom have a bass guitar? Her mom didn't even really like music that much.

Finally the lawyer got to Clare.

"To my daughter Clare, I give everything in the house that I haven't already given away. As for the custody of Clare, I give it solely to Zack Mooneyham."

"_Who_?"

"_What_?"

The lawyer appeared to get more flustered, but had something else to say. "To explain her choices, Miss Brown left each of you a letter." (a/n sorry if this is a little bit too much like the movie Raising Helen, but it won't be, I promise)

Clare began to read her letter, and Zack did the same thing.

-Do you love it or hate it? Please review!-


	2. Moving In

-I'd like to thank everyone for all the great reviews, you guys rock! Nine reviews for one chapter is great for me!-

Clare began to tear up as she read the letter written in her mom's own handwriting.

"To my dearest Clare,

I know that right now you're wondering what I'm thinking, leaving you with someone you've never met before. But don't freak out. This guy is cool. He was my best friend for pretty much all my life until college.

I know this isn't fair. To leave you with Zack. But it isn't fair to me either. I'm never going to see you do...well, you know, all your teenage girl rites of passage. But don't feel like I'm controlling your life now, because I'm not. You do have a choice. Try to live with Zack. If things get really bad, you can go and live with your Aunt Grace.

I'll miss you, Clare Bear. Don't ever forget that I will always love you no matter what.

Love,

Mom"

Meanwhile, Zack was reading his letter as well.

"Dear Zack,

I know this comes as a shock to you. You probably never would have expected that I would dump my little girl on you. But I am, because it's one of the only things I have to give you. We used to be best friends and at one point we were even in love (even if it was only for a very short time). I wanted you to have more than just one of my belongings. I wanted you to have a real part of me.

I want you to take care of my Clare Bear. I gave her a choice, and if she wants to leave, let her. But make sure she turns out good. Make sure she turns out better than I did.

I'm also giving you my bass. You can hold onto it if you want, or you can teach Clare. It's up to you. But she doesn't know too much about music. I hope you can care for her like she was your own. I'll always be watching both of you.

Love,

Katie"

(a/n sorry if those letters were boring!)

Zack walked over to Clare to introduce himself.

"Hi Clare. I'm Zack." She just nodded. "You can move into my house as soon as you want. Can you be packed and ready in two days?" She nodded again. "Okay. And I live here in the city too, so you'll be going to the same school and everything."

At that moment Aunt Grace grabbed Clare by the wrist and dragged her out to the car. She didn't protest; she was too numb. The car drive was silent. When they got home Clare started to pack her things. Shirts, pants, shorts, skirts. All those went into her large duffel bag. Her stereo and the few CDs she had went into a box, along with other things like her bedside lamp. The really big things, like her night stand and dresser drawers, were going to be picked up by a mover. Clare had to go through everything in the apartment, because it was all hers. Most of the stuff would be sold in a garage sale that Aunt Grace would be doing.

Clare picked through the whole place, putting things in either a garage sale pile or into one of her bags. She'd explored every part of the apartment except her mom's room. She didn't want to go in there, but she had to. The room was pretty nondescript, a bed, a dresser drawers, a couple frames. Clare moved those things out quickly. She went into the shoe closet, which held only a few pars of shoes and a lot of shoe boxes.

When the shoes were in the garage sale pile, Clare went to throw away the shoe boxes, but found that each one had something written on the top. She first found the one with her name on it. Inside were photos of her at every stage of her young life. She got an old grocery bag and put the photos in there. She didn't recognize the names on any of the other boxes, but she put the contents of each in the grocery bag.

There were two boxes left, and both caught her eye. One was titled, "Zack", and the other, "School of Rock". She opened the Zack box first. It was nearly overflowing. There were tons of pictures, all from when her mom and Zack had been small children or teenagers. There were Valentine's Day cards and concert tickets, anything and everything that could have been put in the box was in there. At the very bottom, there was a little gold cardboard box. Curious, Clare opened it to find a silver necklace with a little guitar charm dangling from it. She put it back in the box and put the little box in the bag.

Maybe when she lived with Zack she could ask him all about her mom. He seemed like he would know a whole lot. The last box remained. Clare opened it up and found pictures of a large group. There were concert bills and clipped magazine articles, even a CD. Apparently this band had meant a lot to her mom, and Zack too, because they were both in a lot of the pictures. Maybe they had followed the band across the country, meeting them at every stop on their tour. It was another thing she would have to ask Zack.

The next evening Zack came to pick her up. He drove past all the apartments in the area and got into a neighborhood with large houses in it. Clare was amazed, as she had never even lived in a house. The car stopped in front of a white house with a circle drive way. Zack got Clare's things out of the trunk and led her inside, where he put the bags next to the stairs. The movers had already brought her other things.

Zack started to give her a tour of the house. On the main floor there was a living room directly on the left when entering, and a computer room directly on the right. After walking a few steps they entered the kitchen, which connected with the den. Next they took the stairs up. Zack's room was on the left. In the middle of the hall was another den, smaller, with some video game systems hooked up to it. The bathroom was just a few steps further, and right across from it was Clare's room. It was roomy, with her bed, night stand, and dresser drawers hardly taking up any room. Zack had carried her bags up and placed them next to her bed.

Right down the hall from Clare's room was a game room with a stereo, tons of CDs, a record player and some vinyl, a pool table, and a bumper pool table. Framed album covers were on the wall, along with one of those glued together puzzles, this one of the Simpsons. There was even a mini fridge.

Finally Zack brought Clare back to the den on the second floor. He pointed to a flight of stairs that she hadn't seen earlier. "Up there is my son Sean's room. He's a good kid, you'll like him. He'll be driving you to school and stuff like. He's only a year older than you, he's sixteen. You'll meet him soon, he should be home in a half hour. You can go unpack if you want."

Clare went to her room, still not quite over how large it was. She also wasn't quite over the fact that she'd be sharing this house with another kid. And a boy, too! It freaked her out a little bit. What if she hated him? What if he hated her? She was thinking about this as she unpacked. It didn't take her long, she didn't have much to unpack. Clare left the grocery bag full of pictures next to her bed and went to see if Zack would be making dinner.

She started looking for him. He was downstairs in the den watching TV. Rather timidly, she asked him, "When will we be having dinner?"

"I'm going out tonight, but Sean will fix you something. He's a really good cook, that is, if you like Easy Mac and microwave ravioli. Or anything that only needs to be microwaved. Sean should be back, well, any minute. Once he gets home I'll leave you two to bond."

Clare was pretty hungry, so she was really wanting Sean to get back. Not like she couldn't microwave anything for herself, but she didn't want to be too bold. She didn't have to wait for him long. Just a few seconds after sitting down on a stool in the kitchen, she heard the door open. Sean had arrived.

-Yay! My longest chapter in quite some time! Sorry it took so long. Review!-


	3. Meeting Sean

It's not my fault I swear! My computer got a virus and has been broken for the past two weeks. My dad brought in his lap top and so now I can finally update. Good things that have come out of no computer: new idea for the best fanfic EVER, extra time to practice bass (verdict: I still can't play anything harder than anything easy), driving (cuz I finally got my license!), and get into some new music (Kaiser Chiefs are my new find, my favorite song by them is Everyday I Love You Less And Less). Anyways, you don't care about what I've been doing, you care about the story. So here it is. Hopefully the next chapter won't take so long to be posted.-

Sean walked into the living room and threw his keys on the coffee table. He was taller than Clare, but shorter than his dad. He must've only been about 5'10. His hair was a mixture of light red and blonde, but it wasn't quite strawberry blonde. Freckles covered his nose, and his skin was pale, but not extremely so.

He stared at Clare and didn't say anything, which made her very uncomfortable. She stared at the floor; it was one of the things she did best. Zack noted the tension and introduced them.

"Sean, this is Clare, she'll be living with us. And Clare, this is my son Sean. He'll be driving you to school every morning. Now, I'm going to leave, and you two can bond over dinner…or something."

With that, Zack took his own keys and left without another word. There was an awkward silence for a moment, but Sean decided that he would try to be courteous. "Hey. What's your favorite food, cuz I can make it for you."

"Uh, I guess it's beef stroganov."

"Well, I don't think you know yourself too well. I think your favorite food is Easy Mac."

"I think the only food you know how to make is Easy Mac."

"This is true," Sean said as he sorted through the pantry. He found the Easy Mac and put it in the microwave. The awkward silence came back. Clare was about to say something when the microwave beeped.

"Dinner is served!" Sean said, taking the bowls and putting them on the dining room table. He wondered why this girl was randomly living with him and his dad now. Zack hadn't told him anything except that a girl, two years younger than him, would be living in their house from now on. He casually asked, "So why are you living here with me and my dad?"

It wasn't the right thing to say, and he could sense it immediately. Clare's eyes began to water, and she barely mumbled, "Excuse me," before fleeing the table and running upstairs to her room. Sean would have to ask his dad more about this girl when Zack got back. Meanwhile, having nothing else to do, he ate his Easy Mac and then headed up to his room.

Clare was sitting on the bed in her bland room, crying her eyes out. The pain was so fresh, and she couldn't handle a simple question like that yet. Her tears were beginning to stop, and she unlocked her door. Clare went to the bathroom across the hall and got a tissue. As she was blowing her nose, she heard something. It was music.

It wasn't very loud, but she could hear it. Clare wandered to the small den and looked at the stairs that led to Sean's room. A light was shining, and the music was coming from there. She didn't really listen to very much music, it had never really been her thing, but she could recognize the sound of a guitar. It was playing fast, something that sounded like it might be difficult to play. She was drawn to it.

She stood in the middle of the den, just listening. The guitar played the same thing over and over. Soon, she heard a voice floating faintly through the air, just loud enough for her to hear.

"What'll you do when you get lonely, when nobody's waiting by your side? You been running, hiding much too long, you know it's just your foolish pride."

The voice was weak, and it wasn't good. But it didn't matter, because Clare was captivated. Suddenly, the guitar stopped. The light went off. Clare practically ran to her room, wiping her nose again with the tissue. She saw Sean coming down the stairs. He walked over to her room to check on her.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I shouldn't have pried."

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't be so emotional. It's just, I haven't gotten used to it yet."

Sean didn't bother to ask what it was that she hadn't gotten used to. He knew that it would be bad idea. He felt the need to console her, but he wasn't good at that sort of thing. Not really knowing what to do, he asked her if she wanted to watch Family Guy with him. She sniffed once more and then followed him to the downstairs den, where he put the Family Guy DVD in.

Clare had never watched the show before, but it was actually pretty funny. She found herself almost laughing at one point. It had definitely cheered her up. But she could feel a headache coming on, so she took an aspirin and went up to her room, leaving Sean to watch the show alone.

She plugged her stereo into an outlet and put on her Killers CD. The first track came on, but she didn't want to listen to it. She skipped to track five, her favorite on the whole album, and laid back on her bed, her eyes closed.

Sean turned off the DVD and listened to the music that Clare was playing. He'd never heard it before. It was probably something new, and he only listened to older music. The newest bands that he had listened to were Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Guns n Roses. He went up the stairs slowly and peeked inside Clare's room. It was so strange to have someone in that room. It had been empty since, well, forever.

Clare was lying on her bed, mouthing the words to the song that was playing. Sean climbed that stairs up to his room and sat at his computer, bored, and having nothing to do. He didn't want to disturb his new house mate, but he really needed something to do. He could go somewhere, but there was nowhere to go right now.

He went back down the stairs again and looked at Clare again, but couldn't bring himself to making her aware of his presence. Instead, his curiosity got the best of him, and he called his dad.

"Hey Dad? What happened to Clare? Why did she move in with us?"

"Her mom died. And me and her mom used to be really close. I hope you didn't say anything to make Clare feel bad."

"I kinda did. But now that I know, I won't say anything about it anymore."

Please review! I'm really going to try to update this story faster!-


	4. Meeting Angela

Thanks to the few people who reviewed my last chapter, you guys rock! I'm going to make this go a little faster now, I know how the whole story is going to go. And then I've got a great fic coming your way after that, and a couple other good stories in the works too. Just a note: Dewey and Zack both get basses. Katie had two. And also, Sean is 16, Clare is 15.-

Clare woke up the next morning, a Saturday, at eight o clock. She'd always been an early riser. First she realized that her stereo was still on, so she turned it off. Careful to be extremely quiet, she crept down the stairs and turned on the television. Zack had cable, something Clare hadn't had in years. She was perfectly content to watch five hundred different channels while everyone else slept.

She decided that today she would show the many pictures to Zack. She really wanted to know more about her mom and how she had been as a teenager. But now the VH1 top twenty count down took up here full attention. The Killers, her favorite band, were on it, and she mouthed the words to the song. As it ended, Clare heard a noise. She looked up and saw Sean, looking very groggy in his boxers and a t-shirt. He yawned and said hello quietly.

Then he went to get some Pop-Tarts. Clare sat at the table with him.

"So," Sean said, "Is there anything you want to do today?"

"No."

"Nothing?"

"Nope."

"Well that's good because my girlfriend is coming over in a few hours. You'll like her, she's really cool. Her name's Angela."

Clare didn't really care about meeting Angela. All she cared about was doing something that wasn't boring, and this elusive something was not currently presenting itself. She gave a small sigh in her mind and continued munching on her Pop-Tart.

Sean got on to the computer, so Clare went back to watching cable. She hadn't had it for nearly five years, but already it was boring. Zack came down the stairs, and he looked as though a bomb had hit him. There were huge bags under his eyes and his hair was completely disheveled. There appeared to be a bruise on the side of his face, and a little bit of lipstick on his cheek. He started to talk, but Clare didn't realize it, because he just made a kind of mumbling sound under his breath. Then, he went back upstairs.

"What did he say?" Clare asked.

"That he had a late night last night so we need to keep the noise level down."

"How long do you think he'll sleep for?"

"Oh, maybe another four or five hours."

Clare raised her eyebrows and decided to take a shower. She didn't want to look unclean in front of someone older than herself. After her shower, she looked through her pile of clothes.

She decided to wear her favorite jeans and a light blue Ralph Lauren polo t-shirt. She blew her hair dry and brushed it thoroughly. Clare went out into the hall and heard it again. The music. She stood in the same place where she had stood the night before and listened.

This song was bubbly sounding, a happy sound. It made her feel almost happy, which was very good for her considering the circumstances into which she had been plunged. Today there were no words to accompany the song. The music stopped abruptly, like it had the night before, and Clare could hear the sound of feet rushing down the stairs, so she made it look like she was just walking out of her room.

Sean walked on by her, and she felt somehow disappointed. She was, after all, living with him and his dad now. Shouldn't he talk to her a little bit more? She saw him whip out his cell phone and dial a number. She followed him down the stairs, but couldn't hear what he was saying. But she saw him look out the front door and then she saw a girl walking up towards the door.

Apparently this girl was Angela. Angela had black hair that fell lightly upon her shoulders. She was wearing dark jeans, a black wife beater, and over her shirt she had a short, tight army print zip up hoodie. She had on black Converse sneakers and had her nose pierced, with a tiny shiny stud in place. She had on silver guitar earrings.

Angela was an average weight but she was tall, in fact she was the same height as her boyfriend. Apparently she hadn't been told about Clare, because she stared at her incredulously, which made Clare very uncomfortable. Sean stepped in to introduce them.

"Angela, this is my new, uh, housemate, I guess you could say, and Clare, this is my girlfriend Angela."

They looked each other up and down, wondering if the other was a threat in any way. Sean broke the silence. "Let's go up to the game room."

All three of them went upstairs, where Clare was taught how to play bumper pool. The rules were easy to get, but she sucked at the game, so she let Sean and Angela play, and simply watched.

Clare got a soda from the mini fridge. As she watched Sean and Angela, watched them kiss each other and play the game and laugh, she found herself getting a little bit jealous. She didn't know why, it wasn't like she had feelings for Sean, she had just met him the night before. Maybe it was because she'd never had a relationship like the one she was witnessing.

Or maybe she did like Sean more than just a brother/housemate/whatever he was. She didn't really know what was going on with her. The only thing she could determine was that she was jealous and that she didn't want to watch two people laugh and kiss while all she did was drink a soda and sulk.

"I'm going to my room," she said suddenly, with a lot more venom than she had actually intended. Sean and Angela looked up from their game, surprised. Sean shrugged and simply said, "Whatever."

And that, for some reason, infuriated Clare. She got her portable CD player and turned it up as loud as it could go, and put in her favorite CD, The Killers. She drowned in the noise, and she almost forgot about her jealousy. Almost.

Did you like it? Review, PLEASE!-


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